


Purple

by especiallythezefronposter



Series: Equals [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:39:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1249654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki tells his daughter a bedtime story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Purple

**Author's Note:**

> You should really read the rest of the series. If you already have, enjoy!

Loki knew what the cracks meant. They were all over the realm, dark deep ones that reminded him of Thor's lightning and thin ones that ran along the ground like veins. From a distance one would say there could be running blood through them, the dark, sickly blood of the dying, but they were filled only with darkness. It scared Loki more than the nightmares, because this was a bad dream come to life, a reality he wasn't ready to face. This was what he had feared and denied all along. And he would keep denying it, would avoid looking at the cracks, superficially fix them so that he could pretend they weren't there for a little longer, could worry a little less.

He couldn't pretend forever, of course. Even in Helheim, the truth caught up with him in the end.

It was Hel who brought it to him, appearing by his side on a quiet day, clinging to his arm as if she would fall without the support. 'Father,' she said weakly, not letting go of him. 'I like what you've done with the place,' she continued, referring to the flowers that were sprouting from between the dark purplish rocks surrounding her palace. 'I've always known your powers weren't necessarily to be used for bad.'

He knew that she wasn't there to chat about her realm or his powers, but he played along anyway.

'Let's take a seat,' he said softly, patting her hand on his shoulder and bending his knees at the moment a couch appeared behind them. He realized only later that it was a Midgardian one, and that it must've looked strange from a distance; two falling gods, both looking weak and tired, almost out of place in a beautiful, mighty realm like Helheim, sitting on an old leather couch at the foot of a grand, majestic palace.

'Tell... Tell me about love,' Hel demanded softly, now fully leaning against Loki, his arm around her shoulders and her head against his shoulder.

Loki frowned. 'You know what love is. You love your brothers.' He studied her face, looking for some evidence of struggle, some proof that she had been _forced_ to drink a poison, had been attacked and hadn't just willingly given her life away, but there was nothing to find.

She smiled, lifting her hand to touch his pale cheek. 'I know what it's like to love someone I... I didn't choose. Tell me about how you love Thor.'

His frown deepened. 'I never chose Thor.'

'But you do love him.' Her hand followed the line of his cheekbones towards his ear and then trailed down along his jaw. He could feel her grow weaker with every movement.

'It wasn't good. For either of us. It didn't end well.' 

As her hand remembered him, he did the same with his eyes; watched the way her’s opened and closed slowly, how her dark hair was tied in a loose knot and glowed a little in the shine of Helheim's fires. How her lips curled and her nose curved. How her purple eyes seemed to hold galaxies, eternities that she would never get to see, and Loki had discovered already. He wished he had more time, to just look in his daughter's eyes and learn everything about her, to listen to her laughter and watch her happiness.

Her smile became sweeter, more innocent. 'It's not over yet,' she whispered, tangling her hand in his hair. 'Will you tell me a story now?'

'The one about the roses?', he asked, smiling back at her and blinking away the tears in his eyes.

'The one about the roses,' she confirmed, barely audible.

'In a Realm we haven't discovered yet, a girl lived with her family. She was happy, most of the time, but her brothers were too young to understand the things she wanted to talk about and they lived far away from everyone else, so she didn't have any friends. 

She was alone, but not lonely, she told herself. She didn't need others. She could draw on her own, and read on her own, and make long walks in the woods near her house without anyone scaring all the animals away with their chatter. 

It was on one of those walks in the woods that she changed her mind about all that. She left the path, even though her parents had warned her not to and went looking for adventure. She explored caves and riverbanks, collected stones and flowers and danced along with the wind and the leaves that had fallen from the trees. 

Until she found a patch of purple roses. She had never seen those before, but when she looked a little further, she found even more of them. They lead her to a cave, bigger than the others she had seen, and decorated as if somebody lived there. Just outside a fire was burning next to a makeshift bench and she could smell freshly prepared food.

She looked around, and when she saw no one, she walked into the cave. There was actual furniture, even though it was primitive, and the walls were painted with simple but beautiful drawings. And everywhere were flowers, most of them purple roses. 

Then she heard someone, but it was too late to hide, so she came out of the cave, ready to face whoever was out there.  
It was a monster, hairy, with sharp teeth and small, beady eyes. When he saw her, he smiled, even though it was hard to see with all the hair covering his face. He stretched out his hand towards her and in his palm grew a purple rose. 'Same colour as your eyes,' he said as he gave it to her. 'They are very pretty.'

She took the flower from him and thanked him. 'You live here alone?', she asked and he told her that no, he didn't, and that they were only staying there temporarily. There were two other monsters living with him and together they were on a quest of some sort. The others would be back soon. 

The girl and the monster kept talking until they arrived, and then long after that. It was dark before any of them realized and the monsters made sure the girl got home safely. 

She visited them frequently after that and her parents started to worry. Her brothers gave her strange looks and even the people of the village at the other side of the woods started to whisper about a little witch that walked with the bloodthirsty beasts that hid in the woods. 

One day a child was taken from his bed in the middle of the village, and the villagers decided to come after the monsters, because they believed it was them that had kidnapped an innocent.

The thing was that the monsters weren't responsible, so they fled. They told the girl not to follow them, but she was stubborn, so she did it anyway. She followed them without letting them know she was there for a long time, but then they were attacked by wolves, and she couldn't just let them get hurt, so she made a fire and saved them. 

They took her to their home after that, to a realm filled with creatures like themselves and she learned them everything she knew in return. She showed them how to pile up rocks to build their own caves, taught them medicine and the alphabet and showed them how they could protect themselves from predators. 

Their lives became happier after that, the girl's most of all.'

He fell silent, realizing that his voice had broken a few times, and there were tears on his cheeks now.

Hel smiled, but didn't look satisfied and shook her head. The movement was so weak that Loki felt it against his shoulder rather than seeing it. 'You left out the end. I always loved the end.'

He smiled, softly stroking her hair. 'The girl may not have fit in in her own realm,' he whispered. 'but she had found her place there, in a realm she had helped to create. So if you ever feel like you don't belong, just remember that you might be looking in the wrong places and that you, whatever anyone tells you, have the power to create your own home.'

Hel's smile widened and for a moment she closed her eyes. Then she opened them again to look at Loki. 'Are you proud of me, father?'

He remembered a little girl smiling at him like that before falling asleep, and saying those two words was almost impossible, because it meant letting that girl go.

'I am,' he whispered, tears streaming down his face as those purple eyes closed again, for good now.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this was pretty vague, so if you have any questions, you can just leave them in the comments. :)


End file.
